Our son was sentenced mid December and met his VISOR officer twice in the first few weeks but nothing since. The officer seemed very laidback, said he would only put monitoring software on our son's devices if he felt it was necessary. He hasn't done any unannounced visits at all yet. I'm thnking that like all the other professionals we meet on this journey (OIC, SWs, even judges) it is never 'one size fits all' but they all have different takes on their jobs. I'll be interested in reading any other replies to compare our experience with.

This is all to the best of my knowledge, but in the beginning it was every couple of weeks, but then once probation involved, offender manager visits monthly at most, it may have even been a few months now. They have contact via phone/email if any queries, mainly from my person asking if a certain 'thing' is ok.

Probation has sort of taken over checks, and has visited at home. Probation appointments are getting less often, so unsure if police visits will be more frequent again.

As far as I know, visits are very relaxed, and brief, 5-10 mins. Were during the day, I think one in an evening, but now my person is working, they'll have to evenings or weekends or they won't find him home.

OH sentenced in November

We've seen the offender manager twice so far.

They would be wasting their time coming at random times for my OH - he doesn't do a 9-5 job so visits have to be pre- arranged - and even then we might need to cancel...

So far it's all been ok - first visit he went through the returned devices and we agreed which ones we would get rid of - he had several elderly phones and a couple of old laptops/tablets. He took details of the devices we kept.

It's more of a social visit with a check of internet history on the remaining phone and iPad.

My oh was one year on register the police.visited 3 times in total the full year probation was once in our house, his probation was weekly the first month then fortnightly for 2 months then the rest was monthly, police and probation had one joint meeting around the 6 week mark

The police visited immediately after sentencing and we had to prove he was living here, then it was every six months. For the first 2 years it was six monthly visits from police, unannouced and lasted about an hour to an hour and a half. After two years they said he is now deemed low risk so only visit once a year. Again it will was unannounced.

Visits tend to be more frequent at the beginning then settle into a routine.

The first visit is usually longer and involves a more detailed risk assessment. After that it varies, but if there are no concerns, it should be half an hour jut to check internet history.

The guidance is every 3 months for high risk people, 6 months for medium risk, once a year for low risk.

The OM could come round at any time, but some only seem to work mon to fri, while others work weekends. SHPO may state they can only examine devices between 6AM and 10PM, but visits will probably be during the day if the person is not working and evenings only if working.

Do they also go hunting through cubpards and opening drawers during these unannounced visits? I'm always reading about unregistered phones being found under matresses etc. Which sounds to me like they must be freely walking around, searching where they please and doing what they like once inside your home.

OH was received sentence in July 2024. He has seen his OIC twice. Both home visits, first time was because we just moved and they needed to do a home visit and the second was just a random check whichasted around 15/20 minutes. He has been to the station more often due to new cards needing to be registered and holidays abroad etc.

During the second visit I wasn't present but they did ask about watching porn, his sex life etc.

They do not need a warrant to enter the home as that is covered by the SOR legislation. Entry for purposes of risk assessment is allowed.

As for searches, they would only do so if they suspected something. To do a proper search really needs a team of people. But often visits will catch people out and reveal undeclared devices etc. There is a reason why they arrive unannounced.

My OH nobody has a police visit once every six months but further down the line because it's been on the register for so long they changed it to about once a year and when they did come it was normally no more than 1015 minutes but obviously now he's reoffended it could be that they come more often again